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You
don't have to be crazy to believe in conspiracy theories. In fact, 63
percent of registered voters in American believe in at least one
political conspiracy theory. Scientists say that the belief that
powerful people are manipulating things behind the scenes is the brain's
way of making sense out of forces that the individual cannot control,
sparked by the region of the brain called the amygdala.
Economic
recessions, terrorist attacks and natural disasters are massive,
looming threats, but we have little power over when they occur or how or
what happens afterward. In these moments of powerlessness and
uncertainty, a part of the brain called the amygdala kicks into action.
Paul Whalen, a scientist at Dartmouth College who studies the amygdala,
says it doesn’t exactly do anything on its own. Instead, the amygdala
jump-starts the rest of the brain into analytical overdrive — prompting
repeated reassessments of information in an attempt to create a coherent
and understandable narrative, to understand what just happened, what
threats still exist and what should be done now. This may be a useful
way to understand how, writ large, the brain’s capacity for generating
new narratives after shocking events can contribute to so much paranoia
in this country.
“If you know the truth and others don’t, that’s
one way you can reassert feelings of having agency,” Swami says. It can
be comforting to do your own research even if that research is flawed.
It feels good to be the wise old goat in a flock of sheep.
Read more about the research into conspiracy theories in an article by Maggie Koerth-Beker in the
New York Times.
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